On 8 April Sutton Council’s Strategy and Resources Committee gave the major international engineering firm Subsea7 the go ahead to build their new international headquarters in Brighton Road, but subject to making a successful planning application, in which they will need to satisfy concerns about parking.

This is good news for Sutton and good news for local residents. There is immense competition between local authorities for job-creating inward investment. Jobs are gold dust.

As your local ward Councillors we are aware of residents’ concerns about the possible negative impact on parking in nearby streets. We explained these concerns very clearly at the Council meeting and the importance of encouraging car users to use the other public car parks nearby. We will continue to work to ensure that a proper solution is found.

Both of us spoke at the Committee meeting, welcoming the new jobs that will be created and calling for mitigation measures to deal with any impact on local parking. The Committee responded to this by agreeing that officers would look at mitigation measures including offering a substantial financial incentive to users of the Brighton Road car park to move to Gibson Road.

Richard said “I am pleased the Committee responded to my concerns about the possible impact on parking by agreeing to examine mitigation measures including incentives to users to move to Gibson Road.”

The full text of Richard’s speech to the Committee is on his blog, for 8 April.

Jobs

• Subsea 7 is a hi tech engineering company already based in Sutton.  Any sensible local authority would welcome their expansion with open arms.  Their further investment in Sutton safeguards the 350 jobs they already have here. Without this development they would move elsewhere because  their current office space is no longer suitable.
• Neither Sutherland House nor Sutton Point meet the needs of their business plans.
• Their investment will bring around 400 new jobs to Sutton, some highly technical engineering jobs others support staff
• The impact of the extra spending power in the local economy of these office workers and the company’s visiting clients will further stimulate and bring jobs to Sutton, jobs for a wide range of people, not just engineers.

Opportunities for Sutton’s children

• Subsea 7 is already  works with local schools to stress the importance of studying maths and physics and explain how boys and girls can become engineers.  They plan to do more and we have asked them to work with Overton Grange and Devonshire Primary School in our ward.  They are keen to do so.

Improvements to the Area

• The building will be designed by  top class architects.  It will be more attractive than the existing building and greatly improve the appearance of that part of the Brighton Road.
• The area from the new Subsea 7 building up to Sutton Station will be upgraded as part of the Sutton Gateway plan. 
• This will include opening the side of the station, regenerating the immediate area, as well as improvements to the public areas of Brighton Road itself and the flow of traffic.
• Talks are underway with Network Rail about adding another deck to the Station Car Park which will provide more car parking spaces for commuters and people working locally

Car Parking

• When it makes its planning application, Subsea 7 will provide  a detailed report about the car parking issues which might arise from the redevelopment of the Brighton Road car Park and how to rectify them.
• Council officers have planned that the 380 or so vehicles currently parking on weekdays in the Brighton Road Car Park should transfer to the nearby Gibson Road Car Park
• We have asked the Council  to provide financial incentives to make sure this happens.  This will be discussed as part of the planning application
• We have raised with Subsea 7 and the Council  the concerns of the residents of Sutton Court, directly opposite the proposed new building, about  non-resident car parking.  We have asked Subsea 7 to assist with a residents’ car parking scheme.  They are willing to meet residents and discuss this.

A Can Do Attitude

We understand that residents have concerns and we are treating them very seriously.  But we also recognise that we need  new business, we need jobs and we need new skills for the children of Sutton.  We want to welcome Subsea7, a top flight engineering company, to our area and work with Subsea 7, a company which wants to be involved in our community, and strike a blow against recession.